Waterfalls

One of the tourist maps I’d managed to collect over the summer has a cluster of waterfalls marked on it, only about 30 minutes from here. It’s in an area at the start of the mountain range where the regular atlas I have doesn’t show any streets at all, so I’ve been vacillating all summer as to whether it’s worth going and most likely getting lost or not. But waterfalls tend to be more interesting than temples and I figured I’d always feel like a wimp if I didn’t go. So I headed off this morning (after carefully stocking the car with snacks and drinks, just in case).

It didn’t take long before I was off the roads on the GPS map too (it’s an unnerving experience to be driving around on blank space on the map when you’re used to following red, green, yellow, and gray roads all the time). There were signs though. Nothing at all in English, but the blue signs sure looked like the “you are entering Mt Nantai State Park” signs we have at home. And the little brown signs pointed to all the attractions on the map very nicely – all I had to do was pattern match the squiggles. There were also lots of hiking trails scattered around and along the way I found several picturesque tunnels, a farming valley straight out of a fairy tale, and a cemetery with an unbeatable view. I’m really rather upset with myself that I didn’t go earlier and therefore more often.








Of the three waterfalls that were the day’s goal, one I never found (I think I know what I did wrong, but I’m not sure), one was completely dry at this time of year, and one was spectacular even if there wasn’t much water running over it. It’s in a little dell, and the path in goes through a simple torii. A statue of the angry Buddha guards the place (I’ve finally figured out that there’s a hybrid religion of Shinto and Buddhism – the old Shinto gods get Buddhist faces and names). He’s supposed to look mad to scare the evil spirits away. But the waterfall itself seems to be nature’s attempt to make the Buddha laugh in spite of himself.